Design

You want your Website to have a specific look to reflect you and your business. In order to find out what that look is, you need to do some research. Start by looking on the web, and identifying 5 websites, in your field, that you like the look of. Write down the specific aspects of those sites that you like and why you like them. How will they impact or potential clients? How does your website compare with your branded marketing materials? A major part of a prospective customer’s first impression of your website consists of your color scheme, layout and typography. Make sure of a strong, positive and welcoming first impression.

Color Scheme

Colors should be intentionally and carefully chosen to provide good readability and to evoke a positive emotional response from the viewing public. There are abundant examples of horrible color choices that drive away potential clientele and/or make the copy on the site nearly unreadable. In fact, there’s an entire website devoted to these horrendous mistakes – webpagesthatsuck.com. You certainly don’t want to be featured in their pages! And yet, most of those websites were designed by professionals!

Layout

Again, readability and appeal stand as the cornerstones of effective design. The best copy in the world becomes ineffective when the layout fails to encourage the reader to linger and explore the contents of the page.

Typography

What a shame to offer superior thought-provoking information rendered unreadable or easily dismissed because of poor typography selection. This is one of the key points of website design but it is complicated because there are very few ‘web-safe’ fonts – fonts that the vast majority of your audience will have available. Knowing when to use bold graphic text and when to use simple plain fonts may spell the difference between a fancy looking page and an effective page.

Navigation

You worked hard on all that beautifully clear copy that extols the virtues of your product or service… but can your audience find it? Confusing, non-intuitive navigation conceals rather than emphasizes your ideas and offerings.

Attracting people to your site and keeping them engaged… it’s the difference between an effective site and an ineffective site – the difference between success and failure of your site and, by extension, your business.